In recent years, the rise in the incidence of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS), hepatitis, and other blood contaminating infections, has underscored the need for protecting health care workers from contact with contaminated blood and other bodily fluids. In this regard, the risk of contact with contaminated blood or fluid can be substantial during the administering of injections with hypodermic syringes and if great care is not taken, the administering health care worker can be accidentally injected or can otherwise come in contact with a contaminated needle. Of course, by resheathing the hypodermic needle with the needle sheath provided with most conventional syringes, the risk of contact with contaminated fluids can be reduced, but the risk of inadvertent injection or contact with a contaminated needle can be greatest when the manual resheathing of the syringe is attempted. Various devices have been constructed to make the administration of injections safer, but none of them have provided a safe and efficient device for resheathing a contaminated hypodermic needle. For example, in the above referenced applications Ser. Nos. 07/023,638, 07/028,410 and 07/164,348, the Examiner cited the following patents:
______________________________________ PATENT NO. DATE INVENTOR COUNTRY ______________________________________ 881,017 03/03/08 W. E. H. Morse USA 572,400 06/1924 M. Rossi FRANCE 447,992 08/1927 O. Hirsch, et al. GERMANY 1,647,039 10/25/27 R. L. Fischer USA 741,025 02/1933 M. L. Laval FRANCE 756,530 02/1934 M. Ollivier FRANCE 2,393,576 01/22/46 G. J. Thomas USA 2,642,868 06/23/53 O. H. Pontius USA 2,854,976 10/07/58 S. E. Heydrich USA 3,215,289 03/11/83 W. Bausch, et al. GERMANY 3,433,359 04/03/86 S. Kreisz GERMANY Des. 192,453 08/27/86 R. Law EUROPE 3,596,659 08/03/71 H. Glasser USA 4,040,419 08/09/77 A. Goldman USA 4,062,353 12/13/77 E. Foster, et al. USA Des. 248,491 07/11/78 J. M. Reiss USA 4,185,619 01/29/80 J. M. Reiss USA 4,286,591 09/01/81 K. Raines USA 4,629,453 12/16/86 T. M. Cooper USA 4,673,148 06/16/87 J. A. Oliver USA 4,737,149 04/12/88 J. T. Vernon USA 4,742,910 01/10/88 C. R. Staebler USA 4,753,345 06/28/88 S. W. Goodsir USA ______________________________________
A further problem that is encountered, particular by those in the dental profession, for example, is the need to administer a plurality of materials via syringe needles. These are usually preloaded with the various materials and placed on a table for ready access. Some materials may be used more than once during a procedure and thus the needle of a syringe will be unsheathed and resheathed a number of times. Further, there is a need for this to be done quickly, efficiently and safely.
A shortcoming of all of the known devices useful for the unsheathing an resheathing of hypodermic syringes is that they require the use of two hands: one to hold the device; and the other to hold the syringe. For example, Kreisz has a body or grip (1) that is held in one hand while the second hand manipulates the syringe needle into and out of the needle sheath. This is true, also, for the device of Vernon (see in particular FIG. 4) where there is a body (29) to be held with one hand while the user inserts or removes the needle with the other hand.
Another shortcoming of numerous of the devices of the prior art is the manner in which the sheath is held in the sheath holder. These depend upon some form of frictional fit. While this can possibly prevent loss of the sheath from the holder, it would be insufficient to prevent loss of a whole syringe and its sheath. Typical of the devices that rely on this "dynamic" engagement are the units of Kriesz, Vernon, Law and Stabler (which issued after the filing of the parent application to this continuation-in-part application). Thus, during transport, as from a storage compartment to a using location, separation could occur inadvertently. Also, there is no assurance that just a friction fit will adequately hold the sheath as the needle is withdrawn therefrom. While Vernon and Kriesz provide a notch to hold a flange of the sheath, in addition to a friction member, a force must be applied that is transverse to the axis of the syringe. This force may cause leakage between the threads on the end of the syringe and the typical plastic hub of the needle. This further emphasizes the need for use of two hands by users of these devices.
Therefore, it is an object of the present invention to provide a resheathing device for releasably locking the needle sheath of a hypodermic syringe to allow the safe resheathing of a contaminated needle.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a resheathing device which serves as a holder for a syringe when the syringe is not in use.
Yet another object of the present invention is to provide a resheathing device which is portable and which includes a means for lockably engaging a syringe during transport to avoid inadvertent unsheathing of the hypodermic needle.
It is also an object of the present invention to provide a structure whereby a user can unsheath and resheath the needle of a syringe using only one hand so as to minimize inadvertent contact with the syringe needle.
A further object of the present invention is to provide a resheathing device which is inexpensive to manufacture and maintain.